Laundry app start-up using marketing, staff contacts to boost fast expansion
1 April 2015
Tech start-up Laundrapp, which provides an on-demand laundry service accessed via a smartphone, is placing networks and marketing at the middle of its aggressive recruitment campaign to support its rapid expansion.
Thu, 2 Apr 2015
Tech start-up Laundrapp, which provides an on-demand laundry service accessed via a smartphone, is placing networks and marketing at the middle of its aggressive recruitment campaign to support its rapid expansion.
Launched in London in January this year, it has since expanded its services to Birmingham and Edinburgh.
Referring to the speed at which she needed to recruit, head of talent acquisitions Rachel Davis told Recruiter: “It’s certainly plate-spinning on the recruitment side.”
Using the networks of the 15 existing Laundrapp staff, particularly those who had previously worked for start-ups, was a key element of recruitment, she said, as those people typically had “very, very strong” networks.
“And, in recruitment terms, that really is your database of making contact with top talent,” she said.
She said a lot of emphasis was put on marketing to get the business’s name out there and get people talking about it.
“For any start-up, it’s about visibility on the market and making a buzz, so we’re creating a magnet for talent to come to us.”
Due to the rapidly expanding nature of the business and the need for it to be flexible, creating a talent pipeline was a key part of the recruitment strategy.
Davis described herself as a “real strong advocate for pipelining superstar, rockstar talent”.
“In terms of pipelining talent, in a very large, commercial company sometimes that timeline [to hire] can be quite long… because we’re growing so quickly, that pipeline is essential so we can identify someone or some super top talent comes and approaches us and it’s not quite the right fit for us one week but the next week or the week after it is; there can be an incredibly fast response.”
The pipeline is bolstered by headhunting and the use of online sourcing tools, as well as by the marketing campaign and use of staff networks.
Laundrapp is recruiting for roles across all sectors of the business – operations, technical, marketing – “everything from customer care manager through to tech roles and lead designers, test engineers and front end web developers”.
That includes about 12 key roles, “heavy on the marketing side”.
Tech start-up Laundrapp, which provides an on-demand laundry service accessed via a smartphone, is placing networks and marketing at the middle of its aggressive recruitment campaign to support its rapid expansion.
Launched in London in January this year, it has since expanded its services to Birmingham and Edinburgh.
Referring to the speed at which she needed to recruit, head of talent acquisitions Rachel Davis told Recruiter: “It’s certainly plate-spinning on the recruitment side.”
Using the networks of the 15 existing Laundrapp staff, particularly those who had previously worked for start-ups, was a key element of recruitment, she said, as those people typically had “very, very strong” networks.
“And, in recruitment terms, that really is your database of making contact with top talent,” she said.
She said a lot of emphasis was put on marketing to get the business’s name out there and get people talking about it.
“For any start-up, it’s about visibility on the market and making a buzz, so we’re creating a magnet for talent to come to us.”
Due to the rapidly expanding nature of the business and the need for it to be flexible, creating a talent pipeline was a key part of the recruitment strategy.
Davis described herself as a “real strong advocate for pipelining superstar, rockstar talent”.
“In terms of pipelining talent, in a very large, commercial company sometimes that timeline [to hire] can be quite long… because we’re growing so quickly, that pipeline is essential so we can identify someone or some super top talent comes and approaches us and it’s not quite the right fit for us one week but the next week or the week after it is; there can be an incredibly fast response.”
The pipeline is bolstered by headhunting and the use of online sourcing tools, as well as by the marketing campaign and use of staff networks.
Laundrapp is recruiting for roles across all sectors of the business – operations, technical, marketing – “everything from customer care manager through to tech roles and lead designers, test engineers and front end web developers”.
That includes about 12 key roles, “heavy on the marketing side”.
